Microsoft‘s woes always seem to move its sworn critics to heavenly bliss. I find this reaction rather petty and childish. All this enmity has been caused by Microsoft’s erstwhile high and mighty ways, of course. Of late, though, Microsoft seems to have learnt its lesson and become more practical, even humble. Now to deal with the threat its once invincible browser faces from Firefox (please see below), Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates announced in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 in San Francisco recently that a beta version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer. "Browsing is definitely a point of vulnerability," he confessed. The next-gen IE will be launched independently of the new version of Windows, contrary to past practice, though. It will run on PCs using the Windows XP Service Pack 2, a more security-oriented update to the operating system launched last summer. This is a total about-face from the August announcement that no new standalone version was planned before Longhorn. silicon.com.

DIZZY HEIGHTS. Firefox’s latest feat.

Mozilla released the free 1.0 program in November 2004. Now it claims that an average of 250,000 people download Firefox every day and more than half a million websites feature Firefox promotions. The program is promoted as an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer plagued by security problems and an easy target for computer virus writers. networks.silicon.com. Wrote Firefox’s chief architect Blake Ross on a blog: "What was just a small flame 100 days ago has since exploded into a phenomenal demonstration of the power of open source. …a powerful and capable force of change." spreadfirefox.com. WebSideStory estimated that IE use dipped by  0.7 per cent from 96.7 per cent to 92.7 per cent since June. From the beginning of December through mid-January, 4.78 per cent of Internet surfers studied by online measurement company used Firefox, a gain of 0.88 percentage points. silicon.com.

HACKERS ALL. Not one of a kind, though.

All hackers are not ‘born equal’. The ‘ethical’ sort is the one who tries “to help the organization take preemptive measures against malicious attacks by attacking the system himself; all the while staying within legal limits. This philosophy stems from the proven practice of trying to catch a thief, by thinking like a thief." eccouncil.org. The ‘lamer’, on the other hand, tries “to gain access to anything and everything for the soul purpose of disrupting normal activity (typically in a malicious manner, such as sending virus…) using readily-made hacking tools (made by another Lamer) to send the viruses and any other malicious code to other (often randomly selected) PCs.” infopackets.com.

HACKER THINK. Howzzat?

Want to know what goes on inside a hacker’s head? Try Jeremy Quittner’s ‘Hacker Psych 101’, a neat explanation of the process. tlc.discovery.com. For an in-depth answer to the "how to become a hacker" poser, go here: catb.org.

CORPORATE BLOGGING. Questions and answers.

Last week hindustantimes.com (‘BLOGPLOITATION. A McDonald ‘special’.’) this column covered the recent inappropriate use of blogs by MacDonald. This week, I recommend you read Debbie Weil’s Q & A on Corporate Blogging. She answers readers’ real-life questions. blogwrite.blogs.com. Example: "Which is more effective? Adding a blog to your current business Web site or converting the entire site to a blog format?" "Do the search engines care whether my blog has its own domain name vs. being hosted on a service like TypePad?" "What do you think about non-public, internal weblogs written by upper management as a way to set the context within which a company runs its day-to-day business? It seems like a nonchalant way to rally the troops without having the hard-to-get-right all-employee meeting." "How does one communicate the real benefits of blogs and blogging to the Internet marketing and direct marketing crowd? It seems that most marketers I talk to only think of blogs as SEO tools, a place to push affiliate programs or as new content pages to get exposure for contextual advertising." And: "How does one communicate the real benefits of blogs and blogging to the Internet marketing and direct marketing crowd? It seems that most marketers I talk to only think of blogs as SEO tools, a place to push affiliate programs or as new content pages to get exposure for contextual advertising."

THINKBLOG. Blogging for investors.

One of the latest corporate bloggers is ThinkEquity Partners, an investment bank. They recently launched ThinkBlog, “a resource on the Web where investors can find stocks”. blog.thinkequity.com. "We are the first investment bank to launch its own blog creating real-time, dynamic exchange with bloggers from the worlds of business, technology and investing. No other bank allows the level of openness and collaboration between its readers, proving once again that ThinkEquity Partners is a leader in new media that is emerging due to its anywhere, anytime access" is how ThinkEquity Chief Executive Michael Moe explained the thinking behind the innovative move. By the way, a recent Pew Internet & American Life Research Study  estimated that blog readership grew by 58 percent in 2004. 27 percent of all 120 million adult Internet users
accessed a blog last year; 12 percent of them posted comments and 7 percent created their own blog site. Curiously though, only 38 percent of Internet users even know about blogs.

BLOGGERS’ RIGHTS. Do they have any?

In a ruling against two reporters for refusing to name a source who revealed the identity of an undercover CIA agent, a US federal appeals court addressed the question of whether bloggers are protected under reporters' privilege. Read a few of the comments here: cyberjournalist.net.

YES TO BETA. No to stretched-out beta?

''Once considered the penultimate stage of software development, beta versions are taking on a life of their own, as companies tinker endlessly with their products in public,” writes Paul Festa in ‘A long winding road out of beta’. He cites Google co-founder Larry Page’s statement to investors about it: "It's kind of an arbitrary thing. We could take beta off all of our products tomorrow, and we wouldn't actually have accomplished anything...If it's on there for five years because we think we're going to make major changes for five years, that's fine. It's really a messaging and branding thing." techrepublic.com.